The Yreka Miners girls varsity basketball team fell 40-35 to the Fall River Lady Bulldogs at the Mount Shasta Holiday Basketball Tournament on Thursday.

Yreka fell to 1-4 for the season.

The Bulldogs led 13-9 after one quarter of play. The Miners struggled making shots and despite tying things up at 17-17 midway through the second quarter, Yreka trailed 23-17 at the half.

In the third quarter, the Bulldogs extended its lead to 33-23, with Yreka able to only score six points for the quarter. In the final quarter of play, Yreka was down 38-28 at one point before cutting the lead to 39-35 with 2:30 remaining. But the Miners were unable to score the rest of the way as Fall River came away with the five point win.

A bright spot for the Miners was the play of junior Justine Cota, who finished with 15 points. Head coach Ken Dysert commended her for the way “she ran the floor well.”

The Miners were without leading scorer Dakota Cash, who is out an estimated three weeks with an injury.

Cash was on the bench cheering her team on. She said after the game that while it is certainly hard not to be able to be on the floor helping her team, she said she is working on getting back to playing basketball.

Today, the Miners face Central Valley, which lost to Weed 46-38 on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. The Miners will either play in the 7th place game at 8 a.m. on Saturday, or in the consolation game at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday.